herbs for better skin Archives

Your skin is probably the first thing people see when they look at you. Yeah, they see your eyes, your smile, your clothes–and then they talk to you and hear your voice and perceive your “person.”

But if you have poor skin health, your confidence will be shot. And everyone knows confidence is sexy.

So how do you get healthy skin?

Factors of healthy skin
What’s a colon cleanse?
Benefits of colon cleanse for skin

Factors of healthy skin

Before we dive in, please know this: there are multiple factors for healthy skin.

Whatever situation you’re in–whether your skin shines like the sun or the murky water in a gutter, you can have healthy-looking and healthy-feeling skin.

Some of the factors of healthy skin are…

Having ridiculous genetics.
Eating healthily like an Olympic athlete.
Drinking water–and lots of it.
Abstaining from simple carbohydrates (sugar).
Being physically active.
Avoiding excessive alcohol
Living a stress-free life (ha!)

But beside these factors, there are few things you should know about your skin.

1. Your skin is resilient

Your skin is an airtight, flexible, and waterproof barricade between the world and your internal organs. In fact, the skin is the largest organ on the body.

You’re pretty much wearing a superhero suit.

Credit: healthline.com

The skin is designed to safeguard your insides against things like bacteria, viruses, and parasite infections.

It has three primary functions: protection, regulation, and sensation.

Protection: Prevent your vital organs from being assaulted by the elements.
Sensation: Allow your neurons to communicate with the world through the five senses.
Regulation: Moderate body temperature; store fat, water, and metabolic products; produce hormones.

2. Your skin regulates your health

By producing sweat through your sebaceous glands and controlling evaporation, your skin controls your body’s temperature.

But because it produces sweat, it can clog your facial pours and result in swelling, redness, and blemishes.

When the sweat evaporates from your body, it leaves an oily residue on your skin that, if ignored and left latent, will manifest as blemishes.

Remember how a gym locker room smelled? Your skin did that.

3. Your skin is flexible

I’m not talking about stretchy guy Mister Fantastic from the Fantastic Four: I’m talking about your skin being ductile–able to withstand the stretching over the years and still retain its structure.

You can pinch your cheeks and they’ll return unpinched (I’m referring to the cheeks on the face).

Your skin’s elasticity is its stretchiness and its ability to flex. This is mainly your epidermis, or top-level skin layer. Over time, your epidermis’ elasticity wanes, which is why–if you laugh enough–you’ll have crows feet under your eyes.

(Please keep those: they’re beautiful.)

4. Your skin needs care

Did you know that if mothers/parents neglect physical touch to their babies, the babies can actually die?

Now, your skin won’t suddenly die because you aren’t adhering to every healthy skin factor above.

But it won’t glow as much as it could if you neglect it.

And whether that neglect manifests itself as acne, pale color tones, or sagging, you can nurture your skin by cleansing it from the inside out.

5. Your skin benefits from your body

Well, it’s part of the skin, so…

But people often read over this truth and pay thousands of dollars on topical ointments, creams, and prescriptions.

Your skin is not just a sheet over your organs, but is a grid-like network of living cells that speak back and forth to the other living cells in your body.

When you cleanse your body, your skin gets cleansed too.

What’s a Colon Cleanse?

Short version: A colon cleanse is the process of cleansing your colon either via herbs, hydrotherapy, colonoscopy, or other methods.

Long version: A colon cleanse is the process of internally cleansing your intestines (bowels) by alleviating bowel discomfort, aiding the peristaltic functions, softening stool, and overall assisting in more frequent and comfortable bowel movements. Cleansing methods range from natural herbal formulas and careful, restrictive dieting, to enemas, hydrotherapy, colonoscopy, or other methods.

Some people cleanse to “help out” their bowels from consuming junk food.

Others, as you might, do it to figure out how to achieve healthier skin.

What about toxins?

Did you notice in that definition above I didn’t use the word “toxins”?

The truth is: the science between colon cleanses removing toxins isn’t all there.

That doesn’t mean that colon cleanses can’t purge some nasty stuff in your body–but it means that’s not the sole aim.

In fact, none of our colon cleanses pretend to “delete your toxins.”

But colon cleanses can do a great deal for your skin and your body, I’ve chosen not to use the word toxins.

But it seems people still cavil and web-whine about colon cleanses. Why?

Well, they’re talking about the wrong type of colon cleanse.

For example, Mayo Clinic bashes specifically hydrotherapy cleanses. Those are colon cleanses that tell you to shove some liquid (water, coffee) or artifice up your behind.

Those can be harmful and deleterious to your organs, and we advise against them.

If you want a brief introduction to the types of colon cleanses, read colon cleansing methods here.

Benefits of a Colon Cleanse for Skin

The benefits of a colon cleanse for your skin are sundry. From the way your skin looks to the way your skin feels, a colon cleanse can tackle almost every facet of healthy skin.

Remember: the skin is just the tip of the benefits iceberg of colon cleanses.

As you read the list below, ask yourself: “Which one do I want the most for my skin?“

For a general list of colon cleansing benefits, click here.

1. Colon cleanses can help reduce acne and blemishes.

As we said in the “Your skin needs care” section, neglecting your skin health can produce some pretty (or, not so pretty) ugly effects.

While many people assume eating “junk food”–like fast-food burgers, french fries, and chips–contributes to acne, that’s not entirely true.

What is harmful, though, is getting grease on your face, drinking excessive diary products (milk, yoghurt), or consuming too much sugar.

When your body consumes sugar, it can spike your body’s blood sugar. According to Valori Treloar, MD, a dermatologist in Newton, Mass., your body will respond by releasing extra insulin; and in turn, cause acne break-outs.

When you cleanse your colon by consuming herbal ingredients like Dandelion Root, Fennel Seed, Aloe Vera, and more, your body responds affirmatively to them. Your body craves natural ingredients; and when your digestive system is not performing as optimally as it can, a colon cleanse can help your bowels do their best work.

Bottom line: A natural colon cleanse can help combat acne on your skin by helping your intestines more efficiently remove unhealthy or malicious substances for your body that you consume.

2. Colon cleanses can help relieve inflammation.

When your intestinal functions are not playing at their A game, your body can shoot back with vengeance at your skin, and cause unsightly inflammation.

For example, some people unfortunately suffer from Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). Because of an imbalance in their digestive track, they can experience a host of skin ailments, such as “metastatic lesions, reactive processes to the intestinal inflammation,” and other side effects.

(If you have IBS, please consult your physician before considering doing a natural colon cleanse.)

When your intestinal contractions, the ones that maneuver your stool to the colon, are too weak and leave build-up in your intestines, this can trigger intestinal inflammation.

The body then reacts to your body’s intestinal imbalance between the “mucosal epithelium, intestinal microbes, and host immune response“). The antigens between the bowel bacteria and skin don’t agree, essentially, and your skin may react negatively.

Bottom line: A natural colon cleanse (provided you don’t have clinical IBS) can help your intestines remove build-up and prevent possible skin reactions to internal imbalances.

3. Colon cleanses can help heal your skin.

Have you heard of “gut flora”? If you haven’t, I’m surprised. It’s been a hot topic since people have been hopping on the trend of probiotics.

Your gut is a microcosm of bacteria responsible for maintaining a healthy pH balance in your digestive tract.

And if the gut is the microcosm, your whole body is the macrocosm, and your skin is the telescope to see its beauty.

In your gut there is a litany of small peptide proteins called cytokines. Their role is to facilitate communication between cells, and also mediate the “local and systemic inflammation” of the intestines (yes, your body has also has healthy, controlled states of inflammation).

Cytokines affect the process of your cells’ cornification, a technical term for the development of tougher epithelial skin cell layers, which means that a dearth of these proteins in your gut can affect the health of your skin.

Because the bacteria in your gut flora are so vital to the health of your intestines (and therefore manifested by the health of your skin), it’s important to preserve the good bacteria in your gut instead of flushing them out with a type of water-based or forceful colonic.

When you supplement your intestines’ natural bacterial environment with natural ingredients (instead of purging it of its native bacteria), you can help your gut function the way it’s made to function: without your intrusion.

Bottom line: A natural colon cleanse (e.g. not hydrotherapy or colonic) can help maintain the homeostasis in your gut by keeping good bacteria in it. Your skin, when connected to a healthy gut flora, can speed up its reparative processes.

4. Colon cleanses can help overall physical health.

Your physical health is something to be enshrined. You don’t want to be sluggish, debilitated, or unable to do anything as you age.

By helping your intestines more efficiently eliminate the waste that gets built-up in your bowels, you’re doing your entire body a favor.

And it’s not just your skin or your colon that benefits from a colon cleanse: it’s your entire body.

For example, when people eat too much sugar and acquire Diabetes Type II, they suddenly have a higher chance of colon cancer.

While natural colon cleanses neither prevent nor treat colon cancer, it does demonstrate that your body needs all of your organs to function as best as they can; and when you allow your colon to be built up with junk, you risk your entire body’s health.

Bottom line: Doing a natural colon cleanse can not only be beneficial for your skin: it can also contribute to the health of your entire body.

Sources

Tag: herbs for better skin

Benefits of Colon Cleansing on Skin

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